Adam Mickiewicz's Forefathers' Eve directed by Michał Zadara

More than 6,000 verses with no omissions. Mickiewicz's Forefathers' Eve directed by Michał Zadara at the Polski Theatre in Wrocław is a theatrical undertaking on an unprecedented scale.

It's hard to believe, but Adam Mickiewicz’s cycle of poetic dramas has never been staged at Polish theaters in its entirety, as the poet wrote it. All previous stagings, including those in Wrocław, were based on shortened versions of the text. Polski Theatre in Wrocław has finally brought the full version of the Romantic drama to audiences without omissions and deletions, so that all the dialogues and monologues written by the poet will be heard.

Mickiewicz’s drama has had more than 100 stagings on diverse Polish stages. For the first time we perform it in its entirety. One might say that our theater’s production is the world premiere of the drama, which for almost two hundred years has been shaping the national identity, values, and imaginations of successive generations of Poles - says theater director Krzysztof Mieszkowski.

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Michał Zadara, the play’s director, adds - If, as it used to be in Polish theater, the interpreter did his version of Forefathers’ Eve, which was to be comprehensible and have an overall sense, it was an offense against this literature and the spirit of this literature. It can be done to every other author, but since Mickiewicz is a prophet of the Romantic poets, can’t one make an exception for him?

Not the nation, not spirituality but the tragedy of a man

In preparing the text for the stage Zadara was assisted by dramaturg Daniel Przastek. What was his role? 'Due to diverse interpretations and editing, the text underwent transformations and re-evaluations. The role of the dramaturg was to reach the truth of Mickiewicz, so that the more than 6,000 lines could be uttered as intended by the author. Investigating and tracing Mickiewicz’s ‘autograph’ is not simple, or even enjoyable, because, as Kazimierz Dejmek once said sitting at his directorial desktop, ‘that shaggy Lithuanian really scribbled a lot,” joked Przastek.

Scena z przedstawienia "Dziady" w reżyserii Michała Zadary. Na zdjęciu: Bartosz Porczyk (Gustaw), fot. Natalia Kabanow / Teatr Polski we Wrocławiu — A scene from the performance of Mickiewicz's Forefathers' Eve directed by Michał Zadara. In the picture Bartosz Porczyk (as Gustaw), photo: Natalia Kabanow / Polski Theatre in Wrocław

Bartosz Porczyk, who plays the role of Gustav-Konrad, emphasized in an interview for Gazeta Wyborcza that mastering the text turned out not to be the most difficult task.

When I already had Gustav in my head more or less, Michał Zadara forbade me to play - I had to speak and look for meanings. It's strange, because my previous stage experience made me want to tear the wound apart, I was waiting for the moment when my blood and my suffering would spread over the stage. Instead, I had to gain incredible discipline not to allow it. It is the first time since I started working in theater that such an adventure has happened to me, that I had to maintain such discipline. Because the deal about playing in something Romantic is that you cannot play it romantically. This is the principle I have to remember during each performance.

Forefathers' Eve is a much more interesting, complete drama about loneliness, about thinking, about memories, - says Zadara in interview with dwutygodnik.com.

Our goal is to make an impulsive and daring spectacle, because this text is exuberant and cheeky, and deserves a strong performance. Not the nation, not spirituality - but the tragedy of a man who cannot get along with the world around him, who remains a stranger to this world like a ghost among the living. This drama sometimes manifests itself in tragic tones, and sometimes comical ones.

The cast of the first performances of Forefathers’ Eve in Wroclaw was multigenerational - from very young artists to veteran actors: Bartosz Porczyk Sylwia Boroń, Anna Ilczuk, Dagmara Mrowiec, Janka Woźnicka, Marta Zięba, Michał Chorosiński, Wiesław Cichy, Marian Czerski, Bogusław Danielewski, Mariusz Kiljan, Rafał Kronenberger, Cezary Łukaszewicz, Edwin Petrykata, Adam Szczyszczaja and Wojciech Ziemiański.

The premiere was accompanied by an exhibition of works by ten young artists, winners of the Young Art Survey ‘Fresh Blood’ inspired by the atmosphere of the scenery and rites of Forefathers' Eve.

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza, dwutygodnik.com, press and own materials, ed. AL, transl. GS, July 2015

michał zadara

adam mickiewicz

Forfathers' eve